


What you had and what you lost

by 700wordsAmonth



Category: Wynonna Earp (TV)
Genre: F/F, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 15:09:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13413870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/700wordsAmonth/pseuds/700wordsAmonth
Summary: Michelle Earp is back in town and her relationship with her youngest daughter is, expectedly, not great.





	What you had and what you lost

She's back. Over fifteen years and here she is again. The same house, the same faint smell of wet grass, the same howling wind. It's disconcerting how so much can stay the same and change at the same time.

Her daughters, one dead, two that have grown so much she can barely recognize them. Well, she would barely recognize them if Wynonna didn't look so much like herself. Blue eyes, dark hair, wavier than her own, though her affinity for whiskey has Ward written all over it.

Waverly, on the other hand, if they were to stand side by side, no one would say they were related. But if you saw a picture of Michelle at twelve and one of Waverly when she'd just joined the cheer squad, you'd bet they were the same person with a different dye job.

There is no recent photograph of Willa in the house, the ones in which she looks the oldest have her still too young to be really called a teenager. But Nicole got her a picture of her eldest daughter from the sheriff station, taken for identification when she'd come in without knowing who she was. And Willa was all Ward. Her hair, her eyes, her cheekbones, her chin. Her anger.

 

It's the same old house and she's staying. She doesn't know for how long, but, for now, she's staying. Wynonna is all focus, no time to hate her mother when she has a daughter of her own to fight for. And Waverly... Waverly can't look at her, hasn't said a word to her since their fight when Wynonna first brought her in. Waverly hadn't wanted her to stay, she'd given her sister an ultimatum. _Either her or me, Wynonna. She didn't bother to stay before. She doesn't get to stay now._

Wynonna convinced her of the dangers of either of them sleeping anywhere that wasn't supernaturally protected, though, and Waverly conceded if only for them to stay alive. But not without bringing Nicole to the homestead too.

Michelle figures she wanted at least one person in the house with whom she was on speaking terms. Though she is sure there are other perks in having your girlfriend sleeping in your bed every day.

She doesn't mind. Not that she has any right to mind it, anyway, but this Nicole girl seems kind, easy to talk to, and she doesn't seem keen on adding to the tense atmosphere that's been filling the homestead since Michelle came back.

 

Nicole is chopping garlic and cooking something Michelle hadn't paid attention to on the burner, listening eagerly to Michelle's memories of her girls, of when they were tiny enough for her to pick them up without straining her lower back.

“Nicole.” Waverly stops outside the kitchen when she notices Michelle sitting by the table.

“Hey baby!” Nicole smiles at her, hands still busy working the pan.

“Can you come here a minute.” Her youngest says, curt. Her intonation making her request sound more like an order.

“I can't leave the burner right now. What is it?”

Michelle notices Waverly's eyes fly to her and fall back to Nicole's meaningfully. “Seriously?”

Nicole looks at Waverly, apologetic. “Give me five minutes? This part is almost done.”

But Waverly turns around before the words have even fully left Nicole's lips, stomping to the stairs and leaving a loud and clear _don't bother_ behind.

Michelle observes as Nicole looks at the space Waverly vacated and back to the pan. “But I'm making dinner,” she sighs to herself. Michelle chuckles at the sight, she might not know her daughter anymore, nor really, but she does know what goes through the head of those who carry the Earp name.

“She has a temper, that one. Finish your cooking, we'll all take advantage of it. I'll talk to her.”

“You sure that's a good idea?”

“No,” she figures, “but whatever she throws at me, at least we know that I _am_ the intended target.” She smiles conspiratorily at Nicole, “plus, I'm due some teenage pent-up anger.” She is due a lot more than that, but her words seem to be enough for Nicole to go back to dinner.

 

She knocks on Waverly's door and it opens to her immediately, the look on her daughter's face making it clear that Michelle wasn't who she was expecting.

“I don't want you in my room.”

“It's only for a bit. We need to talk, we c-

“ _Oh,_ ” Waverly pauses, “ _now_ you figure we need to talk.”

Michelle sighs. “I know I have no right to ask anything of you, but we can't leave things as they are. There are bigger problems going on. We need to be able to live under the same roof.”

“You do realize how cynical you sound, right?” Waverly's arms are crossed and her eyes seem to almost spark in anger.

“I know. But this is the one place we're all safe from Bulshar.” She tries to catch Waverly's eyes fruitlessly. “I have a lot to make up for, I know that. But can we at least be civil?”

Waverly doesn't answer for a while, her eyes fixed on the only window in the room. Michelle can see the angry tears on her profile. “You couldn't make up for what you did even if you spent the rest of your life trying. You wouldn't get even close.”

Michelle swallows hard, she doesn't have the right to be hurt, not in front of Waverly.

“And about our living situation?”

Waverly's eyes escape from hers again. And this time she doesn't answer at all.

Michelle takes Waverly's silence as a yes.

“Okay. And just... Just some advice?” She chances, though she fully expects a door on her face. “I know I wasn't a good mother, _am not_ a good mother.” Her words come out a little chipped in her rush to get everything out before Waverly decides this was enough interaction for a day. “But I have some experience when it comes to relationships, both with Earps and not Earps.”

Waverly looks at her then, a confused frown on her forehead.

“You found yourself a sweet girl. She seems... gentle? And don't get me wrong, you're a sweet girl too, Nicole told me about that sash.” She could see it in her mind, the sweet little girl she left behind growing up to be the town's sweetheart. “But you're quick to anger, it seems like a theme in our family, Earp blood or not. So, be careful,” Michelle shrugs, “cause she seems to have put her heart in your hands. You might break it without meaning to.”

Michelle sees the beginning of a yelling match starting in Waverly's posture, but it dissipates. Her eyes fall to the floor for a slow second and meet hers again.

“Just leave.”

“Okay.”

 

Michelle's hands are shaking when she comes down the stairs. She'd been expecting much worse from their conversation, but that doesn't mean that she was prepared for it. How do you prepare yourself to have the damage your worst decision caused displayed to you in very sharp pieces? She goes out the back to smoke a cigarette. It is cold, but cold feels good right now. And she does have to give it to this shitty little town, the sunset here is breathtaking. It almost makes her feel at peace.

She looks inside through the kitchen window, sees Waverly placing her hands on Nicole's hips and following their curve to rest for a second on her belly, and then making their way under her shirt. She can hear Nicole's shriek from where she's standing. _Waverly! You're so cold._ Michelle thinks she can see a smile on Waverly's lips as she presses closer and drops a kiss to Nicole's shoulderblade.

She can't hear them clearly now, their words too soft as Nicole turns around. They seem happy and that's... That's more than she had realistically hoped for when she left. This is what she has to fight for now, Waverly's happiness, Wynonna's daughter, _her granddaughter_ , for them all to have a future.

She hadn't been able to do that before, she hadn't been ready, hadn't felt like she had any power to act. It's different now. And Wynonna is much more of an heir than Ward could have ever hoped to be.

They have a fighting chance.

 


End file.
